Ironhide wrote:My name is no-one
Well that was certainly a bit... odd, but not entirely awful. The main thing that I'd have any (healthy) criticism of would be the overall sound mix (I imagine there's loads of post processing involved when recording something intended for sale).
I quite like the overall tension and atmosphere with the rambling towards the end though, kind of resembles Pearl Jam's heyfoxymophandlemama with the unsettling mood.
Think my ears need a short break now though.
Haha thanks for listening! And congrats, you survived. I love your review, back in the day I would publish it "... odd". I'll check that out.
Honestly I don't recall really doing any mixing or mastering (there's pretty much nothing there to mix with
). If I did, it was applied to about 2 hours of material with nothing done specifically for any of the cuts. The set up was just two (very good to be fair) overhead drum mics and two rear room mics going direct into a recording interface - essentially quadrophonic. So it's a live recording and that's the sound of the room. So it's going to be awful objectively, but subjectively, it is honest and raw.
I might not be remembering correctly but it certainly wasn't multi-tracked or mic'd up properly (whenever I did do that it was either too much equipment or too much time, the band would just complain about sound checking everything), just a room recording giving the total possible dynamics of about 4 "louder or less loud" and a bit of EQ and multi-brand compression slapped onto the end. What we played was, of course, unrehearsed, on the spot, improvised nonsense. This meant the "front" two mics (in two corners) were picking up two guitar amps, a bass amp, a PA, and an entire drum kit at a distance (hence why I had two drum overheads as well, which would also be picking up loads of overspill from the amps, with no particular definition between any of the drums or cymbals). That's super messy and it shows.
The synth (if there is one) is via the room's PA which is chaotic as strawberry float, as well as the vocal (not recorded directly) - generally there will be phase issues and early reflections constantly. The room had a bit of treatment but it's pretty much reverb hell in there. A pretty small room too.
So it's basically only as good as you could expect from a live recording of a band in a tiny pub or something (maybe worse, because at least that is live mixed on a PA with individual sources and then you're just recording the stereo mix of that, or a mirror of it when facing the left/right PA speakers).
It was also LOUD and bassy of course - always problematic. So much bass going on muddies up a recording; then you've got to really tightly record instruments with a small pick-up pattern, record in separate rooms, multi-track, or use 100% amp modelling, pre-amps, re-amping, basically silent with headphones - apart from the drums that obviously can't be silent. You then add back in reverb or a room mic later on so you can "dial in" how much ambient room noise / reverb you want.
The earlier stuff actually was multi-tracked (8 tracks I think) on a computer and live mixer, but using some of the shittest equipment around, later on it's just plugging stuff in in a rehearsal room and getting on with it - or you're paying for 3 hours of fiddling with things. They (the actually micro-tracked recordings) can sound objectively pretty good (i.e. "clean") all things considered, but the material was, well, bad a lot of the time.
I've never uploaded anything I would consider finished on my personal stuff either (that account alone is just for live recordings we mostly shared with each other and some friends).
The mix is still not very good, but some much more refined guitar playing (more in keeping with what I play "normally", besides the classical stuff), a much much better drummer, and leaning into jazz rock, would be this (far more pleasant, and over 8 years before - 12 years ago now!). It's also "only" about 5 minutes long:
https://soundcloud.com/tbsblast/the-word-of-anjiBut then there's the same motif / "piece" leaning into trashy, nasty, noise rock/metal territory again:
https://soundcloud.com/tbsblast/anji-de ... rning-from(That painting is me having tripped over a wrapped up guitar cable and my drummer stepping on me. We were nice to each other...)
This is a relatively pretty bit of improvised guitar duet with a drummer who isn't totally out of their depth, but based on a Latin American guitar piece called Milonga by Cardoso but going a bit jazzy and alt/rock fusion with some odd techniques I've developed (a gooseberry fool load of hammer-ons and slurs but with entire chords). So it's much more consistent, there are a few short runs in this that I still find quite compelling and I struggle to play even now:
https://soundcloud.com/tbsblast/milonga-en-suiteAnd finally, if you did see any value in My Name Is No-One (most people understandably won't), this is a more cohesive overall vibe and "developmental" piece of music, still more of a soundscape and/or vibe/atmos thingy though. It's definitely psychedelic, a different session, this time only me on the guitar and the same guys but on bass and drums (and again, not a drummer):
https://soundcloud.com/tbsblast/a-steady-swellingAll of those are stereo recordings from dictaphone style devices - they've just placed somewhere in the room, turned on, and that's it. A bit of EQ and loudness/normalisation is all that can be applied.
Picking up on your comment, the tension and atmosphere is something I've been working with for a very long time and is basically the signature of that sound (or "band", I do think focusing on that kind of darkness came about from my involvement thought), I'm really pleased to hear that! It's some pretty dark music in places and it did admittedly help me when we were doing that regularly with my depression etc as I could speak to that from the belly, sing mostly nonsense and at least know where I was coming from. The kind of deranged poetry and stories is a common theme coming from other band members too to describe pretty much despair, conflict, isolation and inner tension, some other themes, I'm confident nothing we ever sung about was positive - we were all oddballs to be fair.
I appreciate just someone having something to say about some of my most avant garde stuff - it's been years. Thanks!
I have way better home recording equipment and (of course) time to refine things for "official" release, and my personal sound is far more deliberate (although I definitely improvise and then later on refine parts). Of course, I couldn't help but share it on here one day.